Thread: Joke / Шутка

Originally Posted by Karras

Originally Posted by rockzmom

I recall this joke from around 1989.

A German man and an Australian man walk into a bar in Moscow .”

I'm sure it does not effect the meaning of the story at all but the location appears to be the Hotel Moscow in St Petersbourg, not the city of Moscow.

Karras, Thank you.. I did not get that part AT ALL. I am guessing that is what this means..
Питербург. Гостинница "Moscow".

Okay, let me fix that right up...

Originally Posted by rockzmom

I did not get that part AT ALL. I am guessing that is what this means..
Питербург. Гостинница "Moscow".

Питербург - should be Петербург (Petersburg)
Гостинница - should be гостиница (hotel)

Yes, that's it, но я не знаю если она хорошия гостиница или нет. (I hope this is right)

Originally Posted by Karras

но я не знаю, [s:da8wne3v]если она[/s:da8wne3v] хорошая это гостиница или нет. (I hope this is right)

The construction "I don't know IF" is never translated with ЕСЛИ into Russian. In Russian, we have "ли" for that ("я не знаю, хорошая ли эта/это гостиница"). But you also can say it without "ли", as I corrected above.

Ah, OK. I wasn't sure about that bit. I still a lot to learn.

I went with она on the basis that the hotel had already been named. I take it this is not correct in this case then?

Originally Posted by Karras

I went with она on the basis that the hotel had already been named. I take it this is not correct in this case then?

You can say "она хорошая", but you should omit the "гостиница" then. For example, "Я знаю эту гостиницу, она очень хорошая".
If you say "Она - хорошая гостиница", it will sound like "she is a good hotel" in English.
"It is a good hotel" would be "Это хорошая гостиница" in Russian.
"This hotel is good" would be "Эта гостиница хорошая".

I think in understand now.

This whole gender of nouns is pretty alien to me. Not had to deal with it since French class at school, which is far too many years ago now.